Rautaruukki, the Finnish steelmaker specialized in the construction and engineering industries, has issued its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2009 and the whole year, reporting that the company's sales fell dramatically due to weak business activity in commercial and industrial construction.
The operating loss of the company was €323 million in 2009, compared with a profit of €568 billion in 2008. Net sales revenues in 2009 have seen a dramatic decrease of 49 percent, dropping from €3.82 billion in the previous year to €1.95 billion.
In the fourth quarter of 2009, the company's operating loss was €39 million, compared with a profit of €62 million in the same period of 2008. Net sales revenues in the fourth quarter of 2009 saw a 38 percent decrease, dropping from €847 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 to €521 million.
Regarding the 2009 results, company president and CEO Sakari Tamminen commented, "The company's profitability in 2009 was very weak, even though it did improve towards the year-end. Weak performance was due mainly to lower sales volumes and selling prices. In addition, the low capacity utilization rate, especially in steel production, had a major negative impact on the result for the first half of the year, on top of high raw material costs."
The company estimates a 15-20 percent year-on-year growth in net sales in 2010.